Denver Police Chief Robert White, who arrived more than six years ago with orders to reform the department, announced his retirement Tuesday but will stay until a new police chief is appointed.

Mayor Michael Hancock said he will pick the next chief from a pool of candidates that is limited to current or retired members of the Denver Police Department. Hancock will create a search committee and will hold four community forums to gather feedback.

The news of White’s departure came with praise for the chief, who was credited with improving safety and making policy changes that mirror progressive policing trends. But White, who recently was cleared of misconduct in two internal investigations, has seen his share of controversy and criticism from his rank and file, who have resisted his reforms.

“On behalf of everyone in Denver, I want to thank Chief White for his dedication to our city and his distinguished service over these past six years,” Hancock said in a statement. “Through his great work, he has firmly established a legacy of building strong community relationships and a police department better equipped and prepared to keep our neighborhoods and residents safe, and I wish the Chief all the best in his much-deserved retirement.”

White expressed his gratitude to Hancock for hiring him in late 2011.

“I am retiring with a profound sense of pride for the advancements we’ve made as a department over the past several years and am optimistic that the department will continue to evolve with the changing needs of this community,” White’s statement said. “Success in implementing changes and progressing forward requires a team effort, and the Denver Police Department team rose to the challenge and delivered.”

White still has accomplishments he would like to check off his list before leaving. On Friday, he told the Citizens Oversight Board that he had given notice of his retirement, but he wanted to finish rewriting the department’s use-of-force policy and roll out a plan to collect racial demographics on traffic and pedestrian stops, said Katina Banks, the board’s chairwoman.

White’s philosophy was crime prevention, and he encouraged officers to make time during their shifts for “proactive policing,” meaning they should monitor crime trends in their precincts and get to know people who live and work there.

When White came aboard, he was the first chief hired from outside the department in decades. The department was short-staffed due to Denver’s financial belt-tightening during the Great Recession.

He quickly made changes within the department that included reorganizing the rank structure and redrawing the boundaries of the city’s six police districts. He changed the time-off policy for officers and their sergeants so the city had more cops on duty during peak crime times and so sergeants were working the same shifts as the officers they supervised.

White often pitches himself as a reformer, saying he is not afraid to take on difficult jobs. In Louisville, he oversaw a merger between the city and county police departments.

Police chiefs typically face push-back from the unions that represent rank-and-file officers, but White’s relationship with the Denver Police Protective Association has been particularly tumultuous. It reached a new low in October when the union announced its membership had passed a no-confidence vote on the chief.

On Tuesday, union president Nick Rogers declined to rehash old battles and said, “All I’m going to say about Chief White’s tenure right now is that I wish him the best in his retirement.”

Most recently, White was the subject of two investigations over his conduct. White’s handling of a 2016 open records request was questioned, and his decision to follow another driver in a 2017 hit-and-run traffic crash was investigated for potentially violating the department’s pursuit policy.

Hancock announced earlier this month that White would not be disciplined, but he said the chief had acted unprofessionally.

Chiefs who are known as reformers always face resistance within their departments, especially when they come from out of town, said Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. He said White is a visionary and put Denver in the national conversation about progressive police departments.

“He is an iconoclastic kind of leader in the sense that he can see where he wants to take a department, and he is ahead of his time,” Wexler said.

White’s decision to prohibit officers from shooting at moving cars in the wake of the 2015 shooting death of 17-year-old Jessica Hernandez is an example of his ability to change as policing evolves. And the department’s new use-of-force policy will emphasize de-escalation of conflicts between officers and suspects — another example of White being in line with national trends, Wexler said.

White also has his share of fans in Denver.

Jane Prancan, the executive director of the Denver Police Foundation, described herself as an “unabashed supporter.” She got to know White while working on projects supported by the foundation, and she said White always looked out for the best interest of his officers.

“He’s always been concerned about the troops and wanted to do things to support them,” she said.

White, who originally is from Washington, D.C., has not revealed his plans for retirement. But Wexler, who has watched the chief’s career for 20 years, doubts White will truly retire from policing.

Noelle Phillips, a Nashville native and a Western Kentucky University journalism school grad, covers law enforcement and public safety for The Denver Post. She has spent more than 20 years in the newspaper world. During that time, she's covered everything from rural towns in the Southeast to combat in the Middle East. The Denver Post is her fifth newspaper and her first in the West.

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